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MyVisionTest News Archive

Feb 24, 2008

A prayer for my father
Imagine a world where half the population is above the age of 80. It is a cause for celebration. For death is horrible, something one would not wish for another, especially one's parents. It is also debatable as to when one ages, 60, 70, 80, or maybe 90?

The prime minister of India is over 75 and the man driving the nation's Metro revolution, E Sreedharan, is 75. It seems the world is destined to be eternally young.

Maybe this is to romanticise the matter. The authors of a book, "The Impact of Ageing: A common challenge for Europe and Asia," in which the contributor from India, Harpal Singh, is the chairman of the national committee on public health of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and non-executive chairman of pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy throws cold water on such notions. It looks at the economic implications of nearly half the global population turning over 60 by 2050, with declining population and the concentration of three-fourths of this population in Asia.

Among the big two in numbers, China will see its old outnumber the young 25 years earlier than India due to decreasing fertility, says the book. Edited by an Austrian, Gabrielle Sinigoj, it addresses even more the concerns of Europe, which runs the risk of having a constantly depleting workforce and increasing expenditure on social security.

India, of course, has left its aged to the mercy of the five elements with no social security cover. Which is alarming, especially as the book points out that the number of people above 65 will double in India by 2050.

The parents mostly rely on their children, who are most of the time at work. The parents are alone, jobless, stumbling their way to post offices, banks and clinics. Age is accompanied by weakness and illness, and conditions like low vision and diabetes.

Solutions are emerging here and there. In Delhi, after a spurt of murders of aged people, some resident welfare associations decided to address the needs of the aged in their areas.